Once you’ve downloaded spawner from sourceforge you’ll probably have to install some libraries. I had to install gtkhtml, gnome-spell2, gdk-pixbuf and glib on OpenSuse and very similar packages on Fedora 8.

To run the binary, I extracted it, moved it into my opt directory and chowned and chmodded the file. You should be able to do the following if you don’t know how to do it.

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/spawner/spawner-0.1.5-linux-i386.tar.gz?modtime=1223296659&big_mirror=0 tar xvzf spawner-0.1.5-linux-i386.tar.gz

(as root, or sudo)

sudo mv spawner-0.1.5-linux-i386 /opt/ sudo chown YOURUSER:YOURGROUP /opt/spawner-0.1.5-linux-i386

Once you’ve done that, to execute it you just type /opt/spawner-0.1.5-linux-i386/spawner and it should start right up if you have all of the dependencies installed.

Spawner is fairly simple to use but does have some “quirks” that I have noticed. From the main screen, you have three tabs; Fields, Output and Message log. The fields tab is used to enter your fields of your table. You specify the field name and type here. Notes: You must hit the save button for each field and sometimes using the arrow keys for the field types helps with selecting them. Once you have defined your fields I’d recommend saving them, just in case.

Once you have your field definitions set you can work the output tab. You can choose the output type as delimited, SQL or a MySQL Database. The first two options need an output file while the latter you will need your connection information. The output tab is also where you specify the number of records to generate.

Click the Spawn button! You can look at the “Message Log” tab for errors. If it only inserts one record, click the spawn again and see if it starts generating the amount of records you specified. Occasionally it will only generate one record without it being your fault, but chances are if it doesn’t start spawning records you may have specified a field name incorrectly, you’re trying to put invalid data into a field, your connection information is incorrect or your using the wrong database/table.

There seems to be a false sense of security among some Linux users. The number of malicious programs specifically written for GNU/Linux has been on the increase in recent years and in the year of 2005 alone has more than doubled: from 422 to 863. Some security consultants will argue that Linux has fewer viruses/malwares because it is less attractive as a target for having a smaller user base (compare ~90.66% Windows vs ~0.93% Linux). You may call me a traitor but I agree with that assessment. There is no reason why we will not see a rise of malware designed for Linux as it becomes more mainstream among ordinary users.

I’ve heard so many times from beginners “do I need an anti-virus?”, “Linux has no viruses”, “There’s no way a virus could infect a Linux box”. This is the false sense of security that many new Linux users are dealing with today. Most are just starting out as Linux users and have no idea about the risks and safe actions to take. Newbie Linux users tends to feel safe with statements they read about how the Linux OS could never be infected and if so could never be executed because of the way files works under Linux.

Linux does have its share of viruses, trojans and worms but would the Linux infected binaries really need to be exclusively executed by root for a major system apocalypse? Although in most cases the system programs are owned by root and the user is just running the program from a non-privileged account. Some people will argue that for a system wide infection, the infected binary would have to be derived exclusively from root and as a non-privileged user, by running an infected program would only effect the users /home directory and not a system wide infection.

There is a method to infect a system wide Linux OS without the need to become root, this procedure is a commonly known as “Privilege escalation” –

“Privilege escalation is the act of exploiting a bug or design fault in a software application to gain access to resources which normally would have been protected from an application or user. The result is that the application performs actions with more privileges than intended by the application developer or system administrator” (Privilege escalation).

Its not very likely that Linux malwares will ever compare to that of the Windows viruses and even more unlikely that Linux will ever see its share of the same issues with malware as the Windows operating system. If you take into consideration the email-borne viruses that Microsoft has, they are all executable and are in most cases executed by the user, whereas with Linux you would have to save the file make the file executable and manually run the file. Windows XP automatically makes the first named user an administrator, with the power to do anything to the system. Linux on the other hand uses the first named user as the root administrator but does not allow root login on boot-up.

As a Linux user, using the repositories, md5 checksums and using root privileges only when necessary are just a few ways to to guard against an intrusion. SSH is often the first point of entry to a Linux system but it’s not the last line of defense. Using a strong password and anti-virus software should always be common practice for any OS and could potentially limit the risk of a system catastrophe.

Safe computing….

Ok. How many times did it happen to you that whenever you say “Linux” referring to Linux Distro or Linux as an OS in general, some righteous-grammar nazi pops out of nowhere only to correct you by pointing out the obvious and the annoying fact that “Linux is actually a kernel”; no really your family will die and rot in hell if you don’t take the effort and specifically mention linux as a kernel.

So we can’t use one word to describe two things? It’s not like we are using the word “Intelligent” to describe both “Obama” and “Bush” - that would be totally wrong! Is using the word Linux in a loose reference to describe “Linux Kernel based OS”, so out of place?

If we can’t use one word to describe two things, then we shouldn’t use “kernel” to describe “Linux Kernel”; when clearly “corn kernel” came before Linux kernel and we shouldn’t use the word “kernel” to describe two things.

Let’s see what the reference guides have to say about the word “Linux”:

Linux (commonly pronounced IPA: /?l?n?ks/ in English; variants exist[1]) is a generic term commonly used to refer to Unix-like computer operating systems which use the Linux kernel.

1. (computing, uncountable) A free Unix-like operating system kernel created by Linus Torvalds and released under the GNU General Public License.
2. (countable) One of any number of systems that uses Linux as its kernel.

A trademark for an open-source version of the UNIX operating system.

A trademark for a computer operating system that is a free implementation of the UNIX operating system.

An open-source version of the UNIX operating system.

Pronounced lee-nucks or lih-nucks. A freely-distributable open source operating system that runs on a number of hardware platforms. The Linux kernel was developed mainly by Linus Torvalds and it is based on Unix. Because it’s free, and because it runs on many platforms, including PCs and Macintoshes, Linux has become an extremely popular alternative to proprietary operating systems.

A freeware implementation of UNIX originally written from scratch with no proprietary code by Linus Torvalds, which can be used with many different operating systems.

Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus had an interest in Minix, a small UNIX system, and decided to develop a system that exceeded the Minix standards.

Depending on the context, the word “Linux” describes a couple of things. Most accurately, the word “Linux” describes an operating system kernel — that is, the low-level part of an operating system that does all the hard work of talking to the computer’s hardware, managing memory and devices, and generally doing the grunt work. Unless you are an advanced user, or you run into some sort of hardware or software problem, you’ll almost never interact or even need to think about the kernel itself.

While it’s a very important part of the system, it’s not something that users interact with directly. Instead, you’ll be working with what are referred to as “user-space” programs — so called because users actually work with the programs directly. When a vendor or project bundles the Linux kernel and a bunch of user-space programs together in a way that’s useful to end users, that’s called a Linux distribution, often just “Linux” for short — because Linux is at the heart of the whole thing to begin with, and saying “Linux distribution” every time is a bit long winded. Generally speaking, when people say something like “I use Linux,” or “have you tried Linux?” they’re not just talking about the kernel, they’re talking about a Linux distribution.

Next up. We should call it Linux or GNU/Linux?

We’ve all made mistakes during our configuration and at some point wish we could go back in time before the mistake. Now that you have the ultimate setup that you’ve worked so hard on, how are you going to be sure you have the same setup after a system or hard drive crash? I’ll explain methods I use to maintain my setup and configuration files without the loss of any data or personal settings. Once you have recovered from the crash, the restoration can be as simple as typing a single command using the Live CD and a terminal.

The first, and most important, is that the backup medium is not located on the same drive as your Linux setup. I personally use an external USB drive for all my backup data (which can be purchased for next to nothing nowadays), although you could use another remote drive within your system unit, even a non bootable drive. These techniques are based on my favorite flavor Ubuntu and can be applied to any version of GNU/Linux.

The easiest method would be to use a simple “tar” command (such as):

Flags used by the “tar” command aid in the backup procedure by allowing us to include or exclude files or directories. With the “exclude” flag we can exclude system folders or individual files which are not necessary for the backup and can be recreated after the restore procedure (as I’ve demonstrated below). This is just a simple backup using the “tar” command but can be included in a more sophisticated approach.

Restoring the above backup procedure is as simple as becoming “root” (sudo su) going to “/” (root) and typing on a command line:

WARNING!! This will overwrite every single file on your partition with the one in the backup archive!

To complete the restore just create the directories that you excluded in the above backup command using the “exclude” flag :

By using the “tar” command to backup your data, you have the ability to extract any file or directory out of the “backup.tgz” file for recovery, for instance, if you have a corrupt or mis-configured “fstab” file you want to recover, you could simply issue the command:

If your in the “/” root directory this will extract the “/etc/fstab” file to the original location. A far safer solution is to restore the desired files under a different directory (for example, your home directory), and then compare, move, or update the files to their original locations afterward. This works the same with complete directories as well.

In conclusion:

By using the method described above you can backup and restore a basic Linux install. We can use this method to give us a more sophisticated backup scheme by using a bash script and a few other backup details. Watch for upcoming write-ups explaining how we can save all configuration, system information, MBR and complete backup using such a scheme. No matter how complex your system, I find the “tar” procedure to be the most widely used and most reliable for any backup solution.

If every new iteration of Ubuntu can be a Windows killer and every new touch screen phone is an iphone killer; why can’t an open source, 64-bit, kernel mode, 100k line of original code, and with a funky name like LoseThos, be a Linux killer? Yeah, laugh it out. But don’t forget the infamous Linus Torvalds post at usenet - where he himself never thought much of the early version of Linux and look how far it has come today.

So what’s so awesome about this OS? As awesome as an early version of an OS written from scratch can be. To highlight some of the interesting aspect of this OS:

- 100% Open Source.
- ISO is a Live CD, so try it without installing it.
- Default kernel mode - screw security! We will crash it LIVE!
- “Your MultiCore experience with LoseThos will be second to none.”
- It reboots in 2 seconds.
- Has a new programming language based on C/C++.

So if you are a sucker for trying out new OS and tired of rebranded distro, you should check it out.

Linux Mint is the most popular Ubuntu forks out there - most Ubuntu users who have switched to Mint are generally very satisfied with their experience. The main elements that distinguish Mint from Ubuntu are:

• A custom collection of system management tools (Mint Tools)
• A Unique user interface with custom theme - a lot better than the brownish theme you get with Ubuntu.
• Default installations of plugin so that you can play most common media files out of the box. Unlike Ubuntu.

While Mint uses Ubuntu repositories for all software updates, it relies on its own repository for Mint specific packages.

Ultimate Edition (NOT Ubuntu Ultimate Edition) follows the tradition of Linux forks by having codecs of popular media files easily accessible by default for a better media experience. But unlike Mint, it is up-to-date with the latest Ubuntu build and has its own repositories for restricted drivers and repositories. UE is installed with large number of packages and Desktop Environments by default, hence the ISO is only available in large DVD formats. The author of the project also maintains Ultimate Gamers Edition for game addicts.

Based on Ubuntu 7.10, gOS (good OS) is an excellent example of what you can do with Linux and open source software. The whole distro is designed to work with mostly Google Apps and other online applications (Web 2.0 Apps). Though the design could use some work but IMHO it looks a lot better than Ubuntu default theme. The earlier releases were based on E17 desktop environment - the latest release has moved to Gnome as its interface of choice. You can think of gOS as an improvement of Ubuntu the same way Flock is an improvement on Firefox.

CrunchBang is a lightweight Linux distro with openbox as the default Desktop Environment. It was built with speed, usability and configurability in mind. It comes pre-installed with some popular applications not available in Ubuntu by default including restrictive drivers and codecs.

While there are many Ubutu forks out there, these four are the most interesting ones that caught my eye. It is important to note that, contrary to popular belief, Ubuntu Studio is not a fork but has the blessings of Canonical.

On a more exciting note I have been in touch with Adrián Lamo recently and he has agreed to write for us as often as he can - so keep your eyes open for his articles.
 

The last update has removed this much talked about EULA and in to something perhaps more acceptable to the OS community:

The next version of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) is scheduled to be released on OCT 30th. Ubuntu, the only second Linux distro to have a six month release cycle, is the most popular Desktop Linux distribution of all time, with a market share of 30% among all Linux distributions.

Ubuntu, which is based on Debian GNU/Linux, was first released in OCT 20 2004. Unlike some repackaged Linux distros (Mint and gOS), Ubuntu is significantly different and more frequently updated than Debian. Ubuntu is maintained and funded by Canonical LTD, which is owned by South African entrepreneur and a Debian developer, Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical generates revenue by selling paid support for Ubuntu, instead of selling Ubuntu itself. Ubuntu supports each release for 18 months in the form of patches and security updates and LTS releases, which are released every 2 years, are supported for three years for desktops and five years for servers. Ubuntu Foundations, with an initial fund of $10 million dollars was created in 2005 by Canonical to help continue Ubuntu development in the future if Canonical cease to exist. Ubuntu is one of the Six Linux Distributions supported by Canonical, which defers in their package selection and philosophy. They are:

• Ubuntu: Flagship distro, based on Gnome Desktop Environment.
• Kubuntu: KDE is the desktop Environment of choice for Kubuntu and comes bundled with packages based on KDE/Qt by default.
• Xubuntu: With a focus on speed and simplicity, xfce is the choice of desktop environment for Xubuntu.
• Edubuntu: With students and schools in mind, Edubuntu was developed with collaboration of teachers and technologists in many countries and contains mostly education specific applications. Edubuntu comes with both KDE and Gnome desktop environment.
• Gobuntu: The philosophy behind Gobuntu was to release a distribution which has only free software. It has been announced that Gobuntu 8.04 will be the next and last release.
• JeOS: “JeOS is a specialized installation of Ubuntu Server Edition with a tuned kernel that only contains the base elements needed to run within a virtualized environment.” (source)

Ubuntu releases are evolutionary in nature; instead of drastic changes from one release to another like commercial proprietary operating systems (ie, Vista & OS X), where the gap between each releases can range from two years to six years, Ubuntu is released every six months. Ubuntu releases are conveniently timed to be released one month after the release of Gnome (Ubuntu’s choice of Desktop Environment), while Gnome is released one month after the release of X Window System (X.Org). So in effect Ubuntu releases are almost always bundled with the most recently released packages out there. To highlight some of the main features/updates of Intrepid Ibex:

X.Org 7.4: Released in Sep 23, 2008; this version comes with a significantly faster xorg-server and a better support for hot-pluggable input devices. Also introduces a new failsafe mode to better troubleshoot startup failures.

Linux kernel 2.6.27: This is a significant kernel release which includes (among many updates), a new file system for flash-based storage devices, XEN support for saving and restoring virtual machines, better video camera support and improved support for many new drivers.

GNOME 2.24: As previously mentioned each Ubuntu release comes with the latest Gnome release, this version has an improved Nautilus file manager with tabbed support, Ekiga conference client, new plugins for deskbar, support for multiple monitors and many more bug fixes.

Guest Session: If you need to borrow your computer to a friend without letting them have access to your files and putting them in a restricted bubble, Ibex will have an option for a password less guest user account.

DKMS: Dynamic Kernel Module Support will allow kernel package updates to be made available immediately without having to wait for rebuilds.

Network Manager 0.7: Ibex will also feature a new and improved network manager which boasts some new features including:

• System wide settings
• Management of 3G connections (GSM/CDMA)
• Management of multiple active devices at once
• Management of devices with static IP configurations

Encrypted private directory: Ibex will now support for a secret encrypted folder to securely store sensitive data using filesystem encryption, inside your home directory.

Ubuntu Artworks: Unfortunately, it seems highly unlikely that Intrepid Ibex will look drastically any different from the previous version. Ibex will still have the same Human Theme with an optional DarkRoom Theme (shown in the first picture above) available which was used as default theme in Alpha Ibex releases. The wallpaper itself is less than impressive.

For existing Ubuntu user, you will be prompted to upgrade to Ibex when up your Synaptic package manager.

New users can download ISO images from Ubuntu website directly or use torrent (highly recommended) and burn them on a CD to install on your computer. You can also download wubi, which is as Ubuntu installed for windows, the client will itself download the ibex and install it on your windows computer without compromising your existing OS or creating any partition. Additionally, you can also request a free Ubuntu CD mailed to you free of charge; however, depending on your location, delivery might take up to 10 weeks. If you are in the market to buy a computer you can check out the list of 19 places where you can order computer with Ubuntu pre-installed.

One thing that Ubuntu (or most Linux distro) has plenty of, are online resources and places to seek help when needed:

Documentation for Ubuntu.
Community generated Documentation.
Ubuntu Community Blog.
Live Support Chat: IRC channel #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net.
Ubuntu Forum. (688,000+ members!)